Cuomo met with Moreland leaders before subpoenas

ALBANY—Gov. Andrew Cuomo personally met with the leaders of his Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption two days before they sent subpoenas to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, newly posted state records show.

Cuomo had insisted that the commission, which was formed to investigate the nexus between money and politics after a spate of legislative arrests, would be independent and able to follow its nose wherever it wished. This would theoretically have included scrutiny of his own administration, which was notably absent from its preliminary report in December.

Schedules just posted on a state site show Cuomo met at 5 p.m. on September 17 with Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick—two of the commission's three co-chairs—as well as Micah Lasher, the chief of staff to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is helping to staff the effort. On September 18, the schedules show Cuomo met in the afternoon with Rice, Fitzpatrick and Milton Williams, chairman of the Fund For Modern Courts and the third commission co-chair.

A subpoena directed to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee seeking records related to its fund-raising is dated September 20. Subpoenas were sent in neighboring days and weeks to the Democratic State Committee, Independence Party, Conservative Party and the Democratic Senate Capaign Committee, commission sources said at the time.

Cuomo, after the Daily News report, denied he had initially killed the Democratic State Committee subpoena but did not say he wasn't advising the commission.

“You know that the Moreland Commission is staffed by people from the governor's office and the attorney general's office. We staff the commission,” Cuomo said on October 10, in Utica. “The co-chairs vote on what subpoenas to do and it requires a unanimous vote of the co-chairs.”

This post has been updated to include more context on the comission's investigation.